Ted Cruz: I'll Block All State Nominees Until They Appoint Inspector General

posted by Josh Rogin
-
3 years ago

The State Department has a new problem to contend with: Texas Senator Ted Cruz has pledged to stop all State Department nominations from proceeding until Secretary of State John Kerry appoints an inspector general, potentially delaying confirmation of Samantha Power, President Obama’s choice to represent America at the United Nations.

“I am deeply concerned that President Obama has refused to nominate an Inspector General to the State Department for his entire presidency and that this important position has been vacant for nearly 2,000 days. This is unacceptable,” Cruz wrote in a Tuesday to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), obtained by The Daily Beast.

“Therefore, I intend to object to any nomination for the State Department, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), or the Broadcasting Board of Governors until President Obama nominates a credible and independent Inspector General for the State Department.”

Power, a former senior White House staffer close to Obama and Kerry, was on Capitol Hill Tuesday meeting with senators ahead of her confirmation hearing to replace Susan Rice at the U.S. mission to the U.N. in New York. Rice takes over next month as Obama’s National Security Advisor, replacing Tom Donilon.

It’s been 1,988 days since the last full time State Department inspector general stepped down in Jan. 2008, according to the Project on Government Oversight, and the State Department Howard Geisel has been serving in an acting capacity since then.

“During the last five years, there have been deadly attacks on U.S. diplomatic personnel in Libya, mismanagement of security contractors at our embassy in Afghanistan, and hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars wasted for police training in Iraq. These issues highlight the State Department's need for an Inspector General as soon as possible,” Cruz said in a Wednesday statement.

Cruz didn’t mention the biggest scandal to hit the State Department’s IG office in years, which is the revelation by a IG office whistleblower that the senior leadership of that office allegedly thwarted several investigations over the past four years, including allegations that U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman solicited prostitutes in a public park, that the use of prostitutes in Hillary Clinton’s personal security detail was “endemic,” and that there was an underground drug ring which serviced State Department security contractors in the Baghdad embassy.